An Introduction to ULTRA Shinzen Young

An Introduction to ULTRA:
Universal Library for Training Attention

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An Introduction to ULTRA Shinzen Young

Some Context
First things first . . . a few definitions as context for understanding ULTRA.

Mindful Awareness:
• is a certain way to pay attention to what is happening around you and within you.
• involves three attentional skills working together:
o Concentration: The ability to focus on what you deem relevant.
o Clarity: The ability to detect and untangle the strands of your experience.
o Equanimity: A kind of inner balance within your consciousness. It represents a third
possibility between pushing sensory experience down (suppressing) and being pulled away
by the sensory experience (grasping).

Experience: There are two sides to experience: sense experience and motor experience. Traditional
mindfulness practices emphasize working with sense experience. Zen practice does that but also values
working with motor experience. That involves learning to contact and appreciate spontaneity within
motor expression.

Sense Experience: What you see, hear, and feel. (Feel includes all body experience, both emotional
and physical. Chemical senses of smell and taste considered body experience as well.)

Motor Experience: How you move, think, and speak (also how you focus attention). Auto techniques
train you to let go of control and let nature itself organize these activities for you.

Noting: One way to developing mindful awareness by clearly acknowledging the existence of sensory
experiences then gently, intently focusing on them at a pace that works for you.

Labeling: An option that can be used when noting. Labels are mental or spoken words that name
specific sensory experience you are focusing on at that moment.

Techniques: Distinctive focus exercises that elevate your base level of concentration power, sensory
clarity, and equanimity. In Unified Mindfulness, you first learn from 1 to 16 core techniques depending
on your interests and needs. Half of those core techniques involve noting with the option to use labels
(Just See, Just Hear, Just Feel, Note Everything, See Source, Hear Source, Feel Source, Be Source.)

A Mindfulness Practice: The structure that you need to establish in order to develop mindful
awareness. There are four key elements:
• Daily formal practice
• Daily informal practice
• Periodic intensive retreats
• Periodic contact with a big picture coach

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An Introduction to ULTRA Shinzen Young

Benefits of Mindfulness Practice: Systematic mindfulness practice brings about five broad long-term
effects:
• Relief: Minimize suffering
• Satisfaction: Maximize fulfillment
• Wisdom: Understand yourself at all levels
• Mastery: Act skillfully
• Service: Help from love

Modern Mindfulness as defined by Shinzen: Contemplative practice evolving in concert with modern
science.

Unified Mindfulness: A form of modern mindfulness that emphasizes the underlying unity of the
world’s contemplative practices.

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An Introduction to ULTRA Shinzen Young

About ULTRA
ULTRA arranges all the world’s focus techniques into four basic themes. Associated with each theme
are four core techniques. This provides a total of 4 x 4 = 16 techniques. In the Unified Mindfulness
approach, you’ll usually start out by learning one or several of those. All other forms of practice can be
thought of as supporting the core Unified Mindfulness techniques (and vice versa!).

Basic Themes Core Techniques

Appreciate
• Just See - Observe visual experience.
Self and World
• Just Hear - Observe auditory experience.
Experience • Just Feel - Observe somatic experience.
the senses • Note Everything - Observe any and all experience.
with radical fullness.

• See Source – Explore the theme of Expansion and Contraction

Transcend in visual experience.
• Hear Source - Explore the theme of Expansion and Contraction
Self and World in auditory experience.
Contact • Feel Source - Explore the theme of Expansion and Contraction
something beyond in body experience.
the senses. • Be Source - Explore the theme of Expansion and Contraction
in all experience.

Express • Auto Move - Tune into spontaneity as you walk, work, dance,
move about.
Spontaneity • Auto Speak - Tune into spontaneity within vocal expression.
Develop energy, • Auto Think - Maintain a global unfixated state in the mind.
bounce, and creativity • Do Nothing - Drop any intention to focus your attention. With time, a
in what you focused state will arise spontaneously. From that perspective, Do
do, say, and think. Nothing could be called Auto Focus.

Nurture
Positivity
Selectively attend to • See Good - Create and hold positive mental imagery.
positive emotion, rational • Hear Good - Create and hold positive mental talk.
thought, positive • Feel Good - Find / create / hold pleasant emotional body sensations.
behaviors. Refine your • Be Good - Do all three at the same time!
personhood, and be of
service to others.

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An Introduction to ULTRA Shinzen Young

The sixteen core techniques can be organized into a Cycle of Cycles.

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